2013 Camden (Maine) House & Garden Tour Part 1

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

Laite Beach, Camden Harbor, Maine

I spend time on an island near Portland each summer, and I have been admiring from afar the beautiful private gardens that seem to be everywhere along the Maine coast This year I decided to venture to the mainland and go to a couple of the many garden tours listed in the July 2013 issue of Downeast Magazine. Earlier in the summer, I went to a tour in Brunswick, which you can read about here. On July 18, a friend and I attended the 66th Annual Camden Garden Club House & Garden Tour in Camden, Maine.

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Camden Harbor (unfortunately there is invasive Japanese knotweed in the foreground).

Camden is a charming New England seacoast town in the midcoast region of Maine about two hours north of Portland. Because we had never explored that area, we decided to go the day before the tour and do some sightseeing. We walked around the downtown, which is lovely but quite crowded with tourists and traffic. Thanks to our hosts at the Towne Motel, we spent the afternoon swimming at Laite Beach, a beautiful spot only blocks from downtown. Luckily it doesn’t seem to have been discovered by the casual visitor, and the water was quite warm for Maine. That night we had a fabulous dinner at Fresh, a restaurant on the harbor also recommended by our hosts. Here are some more photos of the Camden area:

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Camden Harbor

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A church in Camden, quintessential New England.

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Towne Motel in Camden, nothing fancy but economically priced with very helpful owners and a delicious continental breakfast.

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Rockport Harbor is right next to Camden and several of the gardens on the tour were in this area.

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Rockport Harbor

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Rockport Harbor

We took the tour the next day, which was bright and sunny so not so great for taking photographs. At first I was dismayed because there were only six gardens, but I forgot we were touring the inside of the houses too. Having that added dimension was so much fun as you rarely get to see gardens from the inside looking out. Also I am sure that unlike me many tour participants were more interested in the inside of the house than the outside. The tour was very well planned with houses and gardens of all types. It was also logistically flawless with a great map and descriptions, very helpful signage directing you to each garden, well thought out parking and even shuttles in hard to access gardens, and knowledgeable and friendly garden club members to answer questions.

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The Anderson garden in Rockport has a beautiful and unusual sculptural awning.

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Looking out from under the Anderson’s awning.

Tour participants could photograph the gardens but understandably no photos could be taken inside the houses. That means that I can’t share with you the gorgeous interiors, which were the highlight of several of the properties. I have also split this post into two parts because three of the gardens were nice enough to merit more than a few photos. This post will cover four of the six gardens, and the remaining two will be in Part 2.

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Pleasant View Farm used to be an apple orchard, and the 1828 cape and barn housed migrant apple pickers.

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Out back is an attractive gazebo.

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The back deck at Pleasant View Farm has a wonderful view of Vinalhaven and Hurricane Islands.

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Right in downtown Camden is this alpine chalet designed for optimum energy conservation and minimal maintenance. The inside was beautiful with a cathedral ceiling, spiral staircase, lots of wood, and interesting art.

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In keeping with the low maintenance and sustainability objectives, the lawn and driveway have been replaced with gravel. Unfortunately, the sun was so strong that it washed out the photo, but the gravel was very attractive. This is something I would like to do at my house.

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A one-room writer’s hideway behind the house is surrounded by gardens.

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A sculpture in the herb garden.

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The Einsel garden in the Rockport countryside is surrounded by blueberry fields and woods.

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The view from the deck over the blueberry fields towards the Camden Hills and Penobscot Bay.

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Extensive perennial gardens fill the sunny area in back.

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The most beautiful parts of the Einsel property are the shade gardens that surround two sides of the house (now why do I think that?).

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.

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Thanks for these photos Carolyn. I enjoy visiting coastal Maine for its spectacular scenery as well and am often envious of their short but stunning garden season. It seems to me the plants thrive exceptionally well in this area. I have always wondered if its proximity to the ocean provides nutrients to the soil that benefit plants overall? It seems to be the case in many NJ coastal gardens as well. Any thoughts about this?

Karen, I agree with you the gardens in Maine are unusually beautiful. I hadn’t thought about the ocean though. When I lived in Maine I felt that though the season was short, there were so many less pests and diseases than in PA. The cold winters kill things off and the short summers don’t allow bad stuff to thrive. The ocean also contributes good air circulation and the soil is generally better in Maine because it is less disturbed. All round it is a more pristine environment. Carolyn

Really nice tour Carolyn and it is so representative of what Maine has to offer the tourists and visitors. I just love that studio, but I bet you knew I would say that. I always wanted to build myself one if I get some property. It is perfect for writing, but would need light for painting. Fine for architectural drawings though. I also love the scenery in your images, but you knew I would say that too. It is a place rich in culture, architecture and ocean/ bayside living.

Donna, Maine is still a hidden treasure, and I guess I hope it stays that way. After seeing the writer’s studio that we saw in SF I want one too. I am not sure how much time I would be able to spend there though. Carolyn

It is an outdoor chapel. It has beautiful flower gardens. They hold weddings there. The congregants, when sitting, look out over the water. Ask a local. It isn’t one of the big tourist spots, but a great local spot.

That Towne Motel looks so quaint! The whole area seems picturesque–a great place for a summer vacation. It kind of reminds me of Door County, here in Wisconsin. A very casual, quaint, getaway destination.

Beth, The Towne Motel is an old time motel right on Route One within in easy walking distance of Camden. It is better to walk into the town because driving and parking is difficult with the masses of tourists. However, the outskirts and surrounding areas are very quiet and beautiful. Carolyn

I visited Camden a couple of years ago in Oct. and loved it. Went up to Mt. Battie (sp?). You’re too young to know that the movie “Peyton Place” was filmed there and I fell in love with the scenery then years ago. Thanks for sharing these great photos.

Corinne, I look forward to returning to the Camden area and taking in more of the sights including Mount Battie. September and the first half of October are actually the best times to visit Maine. Carolyn

Mac, I wasn’t sure what it was called, that’s a much more descriptive name than awning. It looks like it would be better for windy places where an actual awning might get damaged, a lot more interesting looking too. Carolyn

Carolyn, I’m finally getting a chance to catch up on weeks of blog posts. When I lived in Lewiston in the ’80s, I was known for getting in the car and driving out to Camden at the drop of a hat. I had so many photos of Camden Harbor from the top of Mount Battie in every season (including winter), that I finally stopped taking my camera with me.
The Anderson garden awning is a classic design from Moss Tents, which for many years had a factory in Camden. I camped and backpacked for about 20 years with a Moss Tent that I bought in Camden as a factory second. (It came with the same guarantee as a full-priced version and its problem was that *too much* waterproofing had been applied to the floor of the tent!)